Question:
I’ve been using Olympus SLR equipment in the OM-System for years and have accumulated a large collection of Olympus lenses and accessories. Can I use them on my Olympus digital camera?

Answer:
Olympus OM-System lenses and lens accessories can be used on Olympus E-System DSLR and PEN digital cameras when mounted with the appropriate adapters. To mount OM-mount products to an Olympus Four Thirds E-System DSLR, you will need to use an MF-1 OM Adapter, which can be purchased by clicking here. To mount OM-mount products on PEN Micro Four Thirds cameras, you will need to use the MF-2 OM Adapter which can be purchased by clicking here. Four Thirds mount lenses can be used on Pen cameras using the MMF-2 Adapter, which can be purchased by clicking here. Micro Four Thirds PEN lenses cannot be used on E-System DSLRs.

Using the OM Adapters on the DSLR and PEN cameras enable use of OM-mount accessories such as lenses, extension tubes and extension bellows for digital photography. Since these are analog lenses, they do not have firmware in them and cannot communicate with the cameras, so to use them will require input from the photographer to use them to shoot stills and video. The OM-mount accessories can be used in the A (Aperture) and M (Manual) shooting modes. The apertures of the lenses must be stopped down manually and there is no way to inform the camera what the f-stop setting is. The camera will determine the exposure in the A mode by measuring the light striking the sensors and arriving at a shutter speed. In the M mode, the photographer will have to enter a shutter speed. The LCD on the camera will show the effect of the selected shutter speeds. Since the lenses do not have autofocus, the lenses must be focused manually. OM AF (Autofocus) lenses cannot be used because they used a different mount. OM-System teleconverters can be used with the appropriate OM-mount adapters on the DSLR or PEN cameras.

For all practical purposes, OM-System flash units are not compatible with E-System or PEN cameras mainly because the firmware of the flashes and the firmware of the cameras are incompatible. The result is that there will be no TTL (Through the Lens) metering, so the flashes can only be used in the Manual shooting mode and the shutter speeds and f-stops will have to be entered manually. Another issue to take into account is the sync voltage of the flash units. Older flash units may have very high sync voltages. The pro Olympus DSLRs can accommodate a sync voltage of up to 250 VDC. The consumer DSLRs and the PEN cameras have a limit of 6.5 VDC. Higher sync voltages may damage the circuitry of the camera. The sync voltage can be tested with a voltmeter by placing one probe tip in the center contact of the flash and the other probe on the contact in the groove of the flash’s base or foot. If the sync voltage is higher than 6.5 VDC, you can protect the camera by mounting the flash on a Safe Sync Hot Shoe to PC Sync Adapter, which can be purchased by clicking here. This adapter can also be used to safely connect studio flash systems to the cameras by protecting the camera from high sync voltages and automatically adapting to the sync polarity of the studio flash system.

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